Advocacy, language, politics, policy and business by attorney and lobbyist Dan Johnson

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Video games? Come on. . . .

The Governor sure is good at PR.

Front page of the Tribune:

Governor targeting
violent video games

It's also front page of the Sun-Times, and probably Downstate press as well.

And for what?

To try to make it illegal to sell some games to kids.

This is like Clinton's strategy of 'taking care of little things' on steroids.

You know, school uniforms, things like that.

I'm sure it will play well with a middle-to-upper income suburban parent that probably voted for Vallas in the primary and would be tempted to vote for a pro-choice Republican candidate for governor in two years.

So in that narrow sense, the initiative already a resounding success. He doesn't need to pass the law to brand himself as 'on the side' of those swing voters.

But come on.

How about getting a renewable portfolio standard through so we get some renewable energy in this state (something at least four other states have moved on)?

How about taking the tax burden off of the poorest working families (we rank 47th in the nation in taking the poorest twenty percent)?

How about standing up to the utilities instead of rolling over for them?

How about getting all our non-violent pot-smokers and pot-dealers out of jail so we can spend that money on colleges instead?

How about more leadership on issues that raise our living standards but don't get colorful pictures in the press?

And besides: these video games are fantastic.

Halo 2 is an amazing game. There's nothing detrimental to shooting up aliens.

I've got another idea -- let's lower the voting age to at least 16, so that when the state looks to restrict those citizens' and taxpayers' freedoms, they have an opportunity to weigh in on the debate.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Those damn Republicans are always trying to kill everyone's fun and take away our rights. Thank God we're getting rid of John Ashcroft. Why do Republicans think they know what best for everyone? Why don't they let parents decide what games are appropriate for their children and stop cramming their Jesus ideas down our throats?